Photos: Carsales staff hack the way they work

Carsales ran its first hackathon for 2016 this week, asking its IT division to "hack the way it works", or come up with ideas to improve how the business operates.

The online classifieds business is a big fan of hackthons, conducting a handful every year, and typically puts around 50 percent of the ideas generated into production. The events are growing in popularity throughout the wider business - non-technology staff made up 40 percent of attendees at the latest session.

"That figure has been increasing every hackathon. It's becoming a company event rather than a technology event," CIO Ajay Bhatia said.

"People are starting to understand that they don't necessarily need to be a developer to improve and innovate in this organisation, they just need to have great ideas."

Image credits: Carsales.

One prototype, which unfortunately did not get a podium place, used technology to tackle overflowing bins in the bathrooms. The team first bought larger bins and then kitted them out with sensors and speakers that broadcast the recorded voices of employees, like Bhatia, to thank bin users every time they placed rubbish in the receptacle, instead of on the floor.

This was the first time Carsales asked staff to come up with concepts to improve the internal running of the business. Typically the events have focused on products for customers. However, around half of the total 30 pitches still related to products for customers.

First place went to a team that built a chat bot using artificial intelligence to make communication between both Carsales staff and customers, and customers with each other, more refined. Bhatia expects the concept will go into production but is yet to work out exactly how it will be applied.

Second place went to a prototype aimed at humanising complicated car data to make it easier for shoppers to understand, by making it relevant to other use cases in their lives. Bhatia similarly expects this concept to follow through into production.

Third place was awarded to the HooTo internal staff directory that allows employees to search for colleagues by skill set, rather than just name and job title.

"There were ten ideas that could have made the top three," Bhatia said. The 30 concepts will now go to relevant managers within the business to see if they can be put into practice.

Around 169 Carsales staff registered for the hackathon, plus around 58 external guests from companies like Seek, Australia Post, MYOB, Nissan and Computershare, who were keen to learn how to run their own similar events. It's the highest number of external participants Carsales has hosted at a hackathon yet.

In one day, the company went through 1300 coffees and 10kg of bacon.